Kindergarten Registration for 2019-2020 NOW OPEN!
Registration for kindergarten students for the 2019-2020 school year opened on Tuesday, January 22, 2019.
This registration opportunity is for youngsters who live within the P-H-M district and who will be five-years-old on or before September 1, 2019.
Registration for Meadow’s Edge Elementary will take place during the hours of 7:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. A parent or guardian must appear in person to register their child.
Click here for more registration forms and more details on P-H-M Kindergarten Registration.
Penn-Harris-Madison also operates two preschool programs: Early Learning Academy (ELA) and Penn PALS. Neither program is offered at Meadow’s Edge, but you can click the links below to learn more about the programs available at our other elementary school sites.
Click here to learn more about Penn PALS and download a registration form. Registration for the 2019-20 school year opens Monday, March 11, 2019.
Click here to learn more about ELA and to download a registration form. Registration for the 2019-20 school year opens Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019.
2019-2020 P-H-M School Calendar is released
The first day for students of the 2019-2020 school year is Wednesday, August 21, 2019 and the last day for students is Wednesday, June 3, 2020.
Other important dates include:
- September 2, 2019: Recess Day – Labor Day
- October 25 & 28, 2019: Fall Recess Days
- November 5, 2019: Recess Day – General Election
- November 27-29, 2019: Thanksgiving Recess Days
- December 23-Jan. 3, 2020: Winter Break
- January 20, 2020: Recess Day – Martin Luther King Jr. Day
- February 17, 2020: Recess Day – Presidents’ Day
- April 6-10, 2020: Spring Break
- May 5, 2020: Recess Day – Primary Election
- May 25, 2020: Recess Day – Memorial Day
Click here for a one-page pdf copy of the 2019-2020 school year calendar.
If you need copies of the 2018-2019 school year and activity calendars, please click here.
Vocational Options and Saving for College
Discovery Middle School PTO in Partnership with Discovery Middle School presents “An Evening of Vocational Options and Saving for College.”
Please join us at Discovery Middle School for presentations about the College Savings 529 Plan and by Elkhart Area Career Center. The programs at the EACC are available to Penn High School students. A complete listing of classes and programs are outline in the Penn High School Program of Studies—just use the “Cntrl F” function to search for the Elkhart Area Career Center.
Monday, February 11, 2019, 7:00 p.m. at Discovery Middle School.
Penn Robotics Team 135 Offering Winter Workshops
Penn Robotics Team 135 is once again holding workshops for 1st - 8th grade students over two days of Winter Recess (Thurs., Dec. 27 & Friday, Dec. 28).
Creative Workshop 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM
Suggested Age: 1st - 3rd graders. Price: $80.00. A camp that stretches the creative mind! Students are given a design challenge to complete over the course of two days. Students will be using K’NEX to build a solution to the stated problem. They will be on teams that will design, create, and improve upon their concept. While having fun in an exciting environment, the emphasis is always on the process of design to build, while always improving on previous ideas! On Friday students will have the opportunity to test their concepts against the other teams within the workshop. Parents are also welcome to attend the Parent Show which will take place the last 15 minutes of the workshop on the December 28th. High school robotics students will be mentors during these two days of fun!
Applied Workshop 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM
Suggested Age: 4th – 8th graders. Price: $80.00. This camp is geared towards students who want to expand their knowledge in designing and manufacturing! This workshop is also geared towards students who can follow instructions and are comfortable behind computer software. Over the two days, students will be designing 3D parts on the computer that can be brought to life with many CNC Machines. Students will have the opportunity to use the 3D printer, CNC Laser Cutter, the CNC Router, and many other tools/machines in the Penn Robotics Lab! High school students will be mentoring and helping students with their 3D computer designs and machining their parts.
Click here to sign-up and pay online today!
Winter Guard Call-Out November 27 at Bittersweet Elementary
Do you like to dance? Do you want to learn how to spin a flag? Do you like to perform?
All levels are welcome to come to the Penn Winter Guard Call-Out at Bittersweet Elementary School (next to Penn HS). The call-out will be on Tuesday, November 27th at 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Girls and boys, grades 4-12, will be accepted.
Come be a part of this incredible performing arts group!
Meadow’s Edge polling location for Election Day
When Indiana’s election takes place Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018, Meadow’s Edge will serve as a polling center, as it has in years past. Polling hours are 6:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Meadow’s Edge school hours are 7:55 a.m. – 2:20 p.m.; you might want to avoid student arrival and departure times because of increased traffic congestion.
Voters should park at the north end of the parking lot, enter the gymnasium directly through the marked exterior doorway. Voting will take place in the gymnasium. Voters will not be allowed passage into other areas of the school.
Other P-H-M schools that will serve as voting locations Election Day are Mary Frank Elementary School, Prairie Vista Elementary School, Walt Disney Elementary School, Schmucker Middle School and Penn High School. Of course registered voters may only use the polling location that serves their precinct, based on home address. Here is a link to the precincts maps and polling location information provided by St. Joseph County.
Breakfast with Santa
Breakfast with Santa is an annual beloved family event sponsored by P-H-M’s Community Education Department held at Bittersweet Elementary. The program is only for children in grades kindergarten through 3rd grade and all children must be accompanied by an adult. Tickets must be purchased for each person attending.
Breakfast with Santa event
Saturday, Dec. 1
8 a.m., 9:30 a.m., & 11 a.m.
Bittersweet Elementary School
$7 for all tickets
Online ticket sales begin on Thursday, November 1 at 9:00 a.m. Tickets will only be sold online through phm.revtrak.net. We strongly encourage that those wishing to buy tickets go online to phm.revtrak.net prior to Nov. 1 and create their account if they don’t already have one. This will save time and ensure a speedier online checkout. Tickets are online on a first-come, first-served basis and space is limited to 100 participants for each time slot. Online payment can be done with an eCheck, Discover, Visa or MasterCard credit cards as well as debit cards. Please note there is a 3.49% fee for using this service. Tickets will be mailed to you prior to the event on Dec. 1.
There will be no refunds and tickets will not be available at the door.
“Boo Bash” set for Thursday, Oct. 25
Penn High School’s Drama Club will present “Boo Bash” in the Studio Theater on Thursday, Oct. 25.
“Boo Bash” features two shows, and admission is free.
The first show, “Wren and Moose”, is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 25. It is a 25-minute children’s Halloween show written by Penn High School student Kenny Collymore-Williams. After the show, there will be Halloween candy and a short meet-and-greet with the characters.
The second show, “Death and All His Nonexistent Friends”, is a 30-minute young adult Halloween show, also written by Kenny Collymore-Williams. It is scheduled to start at 7 p.m., and features a few more jumps, bumps, and scares.
According to Drama Club Sponsor Crystal Ryan, “Boo Bash” is a student-led project. It is student-written, directed, acted, and teched.
“The Drama Club developed this event as a way to have a fun, free event for the community, but more importantly, the Drama Board members wanted a low pressure, fun way to engage incoming theatre students,” Ryan said. “With such a large program, it is a great way to get our “Intro to Theatre” involved in a performance situation.
“The other unique thing about this event it is Penn’s first stage reading!” Ryan said. “Stage readings are how most professional playwrights get their works initially read before they go on to a huge, full production. Having several aspiring playwrights in our program, I would like begin implementing this more in our program to teach students how to get their work read, produced, and out in the professional world.“
Parent meeting & permission form for new State mandated curriculum
Monday, Nov. 5
5:30 p.m.
Schmucker Middle School, 56045 N Bittersweet Rd.
Indiana law (IC 20-19-3-11) now requires that all schools provide age appropriate and research based instruction on child abuse and child sexual abuse to students in grades kindergarten through 12th. Penn-Harris-Madison has partnered with the Family Justice Center, Youth Service Bureau of St. Joseph County and the St. Joseph County Special Victims Unit to provide this instruction for our students.
In November and early December, staff from the Family Justice Center and Youth Service Bureau St. Joseph County will present a series of age appropriate curriculum to elementary students in grades K-5. Each unit is age appropriate specific to the grade level.
To learn more about the new State mandated child abuse/sexual abuse prevention curriculum, all P-H-M parents are invited to attend an optional parent information night on Monday, November 5, 5:30 p.m., at Schmucker Middle School, 56045 N Bittersweet Rd.
Parents have the option to have their student(s) participate in the state mandated educational program.
Parents are asked to return either a paper version of the permission slip or click here to submit it electronically through our school website. *Please note a permission form needs to be returned for each individual child enrolled in a Penn-Harris-Madison School.
If you wish to fill out the electronic version of the form, please click here.
To download and print a pdf copy of the elementary (grades K-5) permission form, please click here.
Adobe Acrobat Reader will be required to view the pdfs. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader, please visit Adobe’s website, at this link www.get.adobe.com/reader/, to download your free version.
If you opt to fill out the paper form, you will need to print the form, fill it out and return it to the school.
P-H-M Spring 2018 ISTEP+ Scores Above State Average
Once again Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation schools, in all grade levels tested, scored above Indiana’s averages. The variance between P-H-M’s pass rate over the state is at least 10% or higher across all grade levels and subjects.
For grade 10, 75.6% of P-H-M students passed the ELA test and 58.4% passed the Math portion. The district’s overall pass rate for grade 10 was 56.4%.
For grades 3-8, 78.0% of P-H-M students passed the ELA test and 74.8% passed the Math test. P-H-M’s overall district pass rate for grades 3-8 was 68.3%.
For grade 10, P-H-M ranks in the Top 5% out of 291 public school corporations. In grades 3-8, P-H-M is in the Top 6% of public school districts out of 294 public school corporations.
When reviewing the Corporation’s performance on the last round of ISTEP+ (grades 3-8) test results, P-H-M Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker commented “P-H-M teachers and administrators are incredibly committed to our vision of excellence and offer the best education in the Michiana area. I am very proud of the fact that P-H-M is one of the state’s top performing school districts. The credit goes to our outstanding teachers, students and parents.”